Status: 10.11.2023, 17:15 PM
By: Kilian Beck
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Pope Francis will hold a Mass for the late Benedict XVI and for the late cardinals in St. Peter's Basilica on Nov. 3. (Archive photo) © Andrew Medichini/dpa
The Pope allows homosexuals and transgender Catholics to be baptized and attend weddings as witnesses. Liberal Catholics remain the minority globally.
Rome/Vatican City – It could be the beginning of a U-turn or just canonical cosmetics, starting with Pope Francis: The Catholic Church allows transgender Catholics to be baptized. In addition, they are likely to become godparents and witnesses in the Catholic Church. This emerges from a document approved by Francis and issued by the Dicastery for the Faith, the highest authority for theological questions in the Vatican. Previously, the pope had always criticized such ideas as "gender ideology."
Homosexuals are allowed to become godparents – if they live abstinently
Homosexual Catholics are also better off in the instruction: children of homosexual couples, including those born through surrogacy, should be able to be baptized. The portal Vatican News reports, however, that for this to happen, "there must be the well-founded hope that it will be educated in the Catholic faith." Furthermore, homosexuals should also be able to become godparents. The Vatican calls for "caution" for all homosexuals who live "in a stable and declared relationship."
In the case of single homosexuals, it must be ensured that the godfather "leads a life in accordance with the faith". In practice, this means that homosexuals must be sexually abstinent in order to become godparents. Homosexuality is still a sin in the Catholic Church.
Transgender not an issue in canon law
According to Vatican News, the reform was brought about by a Brazilian bishop who asked the Vatican in July whether homosexual and transgender people could be granted sacraments. The Vatican's response is based on two canonical arguments: Jesus' "incessant search" for the "sinner" and the simple fact that transgender is not an issue in canon law.
German Catholics will probably continue to struggle to deal with homosexuals and transgender people. The Synodal Way, the central Catholic discussion forum in Germany, decided in 2023, with the approval of 80% of the participating bishops, to allow same-sex couples to be blessed. In addition, the assembly decided to oppose the blanket classification of homosexuality as a sin and to advocate for reforms in the universal Church. There, however, the liberal Catholics are quite clearly in the minority. Its central advocate, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, recently lost his seat in the Council of Cardinals, the central seat in the Council of Cardinals
Conservative Catholics: Globally in the majority in Germany a loud minority
The conservative minority among the German bishops, on the other hand, is particularly vocal when it comes to homosexuals: For example, the arch-conservative Bishop of Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, clearly opposed the blessing of homosexual couples in the synodal assembly. His argument, according to a report in Die Zeit, is that couples could come up with the idea of being admitted to the sacrament of marriage next. In 2015, in a letter to the Bishops' Conference, he railed against the "social and political acceptance of homosexuality." The Bishop of Eichstätt, Gregor Maria Hanke, is on a similar line. The two are also boycotting the Synodal Council. A new reform body of the Catholic Church in Germany, which is supported by the vast majority of the Church and the faithful. (kb)